The GiveWell Blog

Is the world getting better?

I recently spoke with Robin Hanson and he proposed that donors invest their money in order to give more in the future. One question that came up was whether the world is improving such that opportunities to cost-effectively accomplish good are running out. I think there’s a strong argument that this may be the case,…

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Why we recommend so few charities

This post seeks to address a common misconception about our work, and will in the future be linked from an FAQ. We often encounter confusion around the fact that we recommend so few charities. Some take this as a statement that “very few charities are accomplishing good,” but this is very much an incorrect interpretation….

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External evaluation of our research

We’ve long been interested in the idea of subjecting our research to formal external evaluation. We publish the full details of our analysis so that anyone may critique it, but we also recognize that it can take a lot of work to digest and critique our analysis, and we want to be subjecting ourselves to…

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GiveWell is hiring

GiveWell continues to seek outstanding people to join our team. In addition to the Research Analyst position for which we’ve been accepting applications, we’ve also recently posted another job opening. For the Research Associate position, we seek someone with a strong background in causal inference and quantitative research methods either through academic coursework at the…

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Self-evaluation: GiveWell as a project

This is the third post (of five) we’re planning to make focused on our self-evaluation and future plans. This post answers a set of critical questions for GiveWell stakeholders. The questions are the same as last year’s. Is GiveWell’s research process “robust,” i.e., can it be continued and maintained without relying on the co-Founders? Where…

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